


Not a Flobberworm

by willow_larkspur



Series: Fantasy February [24]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arguing, Book 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Cultural Differences, Desi Harry Potter, Female Harry Potter, Gen, Gremlins, Hagrid's A+ Teaching, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Not Hermione Granger Friendly, Racism, Xenophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:08:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29814417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/willow_larkspur/pseuds/willow_larkspur
Summary: After Hagrid assigns the fifth-years to take care of a mogwai for a week, Parvati and Hermione argue over why Harini won't eat certain foods.
Relationships: Gryffindor House - Relationship
Series: Fantasy February [24]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2141499
Comments: 7
Kudos: 23
Collections: MC4A Year 3





	Not a Flobberworm

**Author's Note:**

> Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I’m just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn’t going to get you anything but tears.  
> Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. There is also referenced child abuse, including denying a child access to their cultural heritage (an act of genocide). Feel free to back out if need be.  
> Author’s Note: Just a reminder that if you disagree with how someone interpreted canon or have used (or not) it in a fic, that you can just leave without comment. That is allowed.

(^^)  
 **Not a Flobberworm**  
(^^)

Boring was not a word that anyone would apply to Hagrid’s class. No, not even during the now infamous flobberworm lesson. The man seemed to flip flop between two extremes constantly. Either the creatures would be fairly innocuous but a pain to deal with for some reason or they would be extremely dangerous. They didn’t scale either, so that they got progressively difficult as students progressed through the lessons. He also tended to surprise his students, springing the next creature on them without allowing any kind of preparatory work. So there tended to be a great deal of injuries, especially of the bite, slash, or burn varieties. Fortunately, no one had actually petitioned to have any of the creatures destroyed since the first year he had taught the course.

The man didn’t seem to understand why his largest classes were the ones that signed up before he was announced as taking over the role of professor for the course. Kettleburn wasn’t anything spectacular as Care of Magical Creatures professors went, but he had something that Hagrid didn’t seem to have: the understanding that his students weren’t experts. Older students discouraged the second-years from signing up for the elective, since taking the class was not required for setting the OWL for it, which left only the unwary, the reckless, and the students who had already picked the elective before Kettleburn’s retirement.

So it was with great trepidation that the fifth-years greeted Hagrid’s first assignment after his late return to teaching that year.

“They’re really easy to take care of,” Hagrid assured the class as he handed each student a small wooden crate that had something whining inside it, “an’ it’s jus’ fer a week. Yeh’ve jus’ got ta remember three simple rules.” He counted each one on his fingers. “Don’ expose ‘em to sunlight. They don’ like it. Don’ get ‘em wet, an’ whatever else yeh do, don’ feed ‘em after midnight.”

“Um, Hagrid,” Dean asked once it became clear that Hagrid wasn’t going to give them any more information than that. He licked his lips nervously as he glanced around the group. “What did you say these creatures were again?”

“These are mogwai,” Hagrid answered proudly. The black eye he had had the other night was already turning green around the edges. “They’re jus’ perfect fer all o’ yeh to prove jus’ how responsible yeh. Then we can move on to more interestin’ creatures.”

“They’re mogwai?” Harini asked, yanking her fingers back from where she had been sliding them into between the slats of the door on the crate. She exchanged a look with Dean. Hermione looked like she had recognized the name as well. Harini bit her bottom lip before daring to ask the question that she never would have if Hagrid had been Aunt Petunia or Snape. “Are you sure this is a good idea? Maybe we should take care of flobberworms instead.”

“Yer a good girl, Harini,” Hagrid said as he laid a hand across her back in thumping reassurance, “but yer worryin’ too much. Yeh all have this. It really is very easy. Jus’ follow the rules.”

“Right,” she agreed weakly. “Just follow the rules.”

(^^)

After the lesson, Dean stepped up to make sure that all of the Gryffindors knew just how important it was to not feed their mogwai after midnight or get it wet at all. Predictably, Hermione huffed a bit over the fuss being made once she found out that Dean was basing his knowledge on a movie. Harini kept her own comments to herself, having already learned over the years that life went smoother when she didn’t directly contradict Hermione.

Harini had enough trouble this year already. Umbridge had made no secret that she had it out for Harini. Most of the last month and a half, she had spent in detention with the odious woman. There wasn’t enough murlap essence in the world that would prevent her hand from scarring from the lines Umbridge had her writing.

By the time she was sitting down to dinner, all of the other Houses had been made aware of Hagrid’s project for the fifth-years. Most of the students who had been raised in the Muggle world were regaling their friends about the events detailed in the movies. Harini stifled a laugh at the looks of shocked dismay on some faces. 

She carefully dodged the roasted lamb as she filled her plate. Thankfully, Ron was sitting across from her today rather than right beside her. That meant that she didn’t have to worry about breathing in too much of the smell from the mint on the lamb. She had discovered the allergy when she had cooked the dish for the Dursleys. No matter how many times Dudley tricked her into eating it over the years, her reaction had never improved. Harini was fairly certain that Aunt Petunia told people that she just didn’t like the flavor of the herb, no matter how popular it was with other people.

It wasn’t the flavor so much as Harini enjoyed breathing, which she had trouble doing if she had mint.

“You really should try the lamb, Harini,” Hermione commented as she cut her own portion into bite sized pieces. “You cannot exist on chicken alone, you know.”

“I eat Shepherd’s Pie,” Harini said. It just wasn’t what was in front of her at the moment. She had a smallish piece of baked chicken along with carrots and mushy peas. She had also filled a small side bowl with plump blackberries. It was straight out of one of the nutritional cookbooks that Aunt Petunia had gotten when Smeltings had said that Dudley needed to lose weight.

“That has lamb in it,” Hermione pointed out. “So you’ll like this, too. You shouldn’t be afraid to broaden your horizons on what you eat, you know. I understand not wanting to try any of the beef options, given the Outbreak, but you should still try new things.”

“The outbreak is the only reason that anyone might want to avoid eating beef?” Parvati asked, looking at Hermione with disbelief on her pretty face. Harini was not happy at getting caught between the two girls as they devolved into yet another spat. “It couldn’t possibly be any other reason, right?”

“Harini doesn’t believe in your silly superstitions, Parvati,” Hermione argued back. 

Harini held back the sigh that wanted to escape. She really didn’t have an opinion, even if both girls had decided that Harini must have one. Aunt Petunia certainly hadn’t taught her anything about the cultural heritage that Harini had learned she had inherited from both her parents. And Harini only knew bits from watching Parvati over the years, because she hadn’t worked up the courage to ask any questions yet. But that didn’t seem to stop Hermione or Parvati from arguing about it.

She sometimes wished that she had been a boy, because surely it would have been easier if she had been. She couldn’t imagine Dean or Seamus making such a fuss about Ron assuming things about her. She noticed Neville looking a bit wary as the argument seemed to escalate and added him to her mental list of people who wouldn’t fight over her.

Like Harini, Neville had brought his mogwai to dinner and was feeding it bits of his own dinner. The only difference in their meals was that Neville had roasted red potatoes instead of carrots. Dean had a similar set up for his mogwai, but he had put together a little bowl of spaghetti for his mogwai. He gave her a half smile when he noted her looking.

“Mine didn’t seem interested in chicken,” he said, barely audible under the increased volume of Hermione and Parvati sniping at each other. 

Then someone screeched from the Slytherin table and all focus shifted to the other side of the Great Hall. Malfoy had jumped to stand on the bench for the table, making him plainly visible in the crowd. He was also still screaming like he was fit to burst. His normally pale face was visibly red despite the distance, too.

“The filthy beast is boiling into pieces,” Malfoy yelled finally. “It’s multiplying! That’s so weird!”

Harini felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Dean looked a bit gray and worried as well.

“Is it too late to trade them out for flobberworms?” Dean asked no one in particular. Harini silently agreed with him as Neville’s mogwai stole the potato quarter off the fork still dangling in front of its cage. This was not going to end well for any of them.

(^^)

The alarms went off at two in the morning. The klaxon echoed through out the dorm as lights flashed ruddy light. The screeching of startled mogwai only added to the cacophony in the room. Harini was torn between comforting her mogwai, trying to figure out what was causing the alarms to sound, and covering her ears to block it all out. It was horrible all around.

In the hope of stopping the flashing lights, Harini cast a hasty  _ Lumos _ from her quickly drawn wand. The other girls in the dorm followed suit. It didn’t stop the red flash, but with more lights available in the room, it wasn’t as overwhelming and disorientating as it had been.

Then she spotted the single word that had magically appeared in foot high letters on their door. The font was in McGonagall’s steady hand. The word was switching between Gryffindor crimson and gold. All it said was  _ RUN _ .

And Harini knew, without a single ounce of doubt, that this was entirely because someone had fed their mogwai after midnight. And she just knew how that none of them were going to get any more sleep that night.

**Author's Note:**

> Submitting Info:  
> Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 14); MC4A  
> Individual Challenges: Gryffindor MC (x5); Professor MC; Hold the Mayo; Gender Bender; Rian-Russo Inversion (x4); Ethnic & Present (x3); Lunar Era; Old Shoes (Y); Short Jog; Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon  
> House: Slytherin  
> Assignment No.: Term 14 – Assignment 04  
> Subject (Task No.): Etiquette (Task#1: Write about someone who has any sort of dietary restriction.)  
> Other Hogwarts Challenges: Fantastic Beasts [08]("That's so weird!"); 365 Prompts [199](Dean Thomas); Scavenger Hunt [68](Green/Lumos/Spaghetti); But Can You Spell It? [U](Underestimated); Stop! Hamper Time (Sandwiches)[Tuna Salad](Hagrid Scenario); Fantasy February (24)[Early Morning PA Warning];  
> Other MC4A Challenges: Fire [Hard](Who's Your Family?); Chim [Karma](Gender Bend); Hangman [06](n/a);  
> Representation(s): Desi & Fem Harry Potter; House as Dysfunctional Family  
> Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Fruit Fly; Misshapen Pods; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Found Family; Nontraditional; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; Deadliest Catch; Muck & Slime; Casper’s House; Hot Apple; Bad Beans; Under the Bridge; Over the Hills); Chorus (Wabi Sabi; Peddling Pots; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow’s Shade; A Long Dog; Larger than Life; Unicorn; Creature Feature; Vid Tangent; Abandoned Ship; In the Trench; Cooler Yelp; Lost Llama; Mermaid)  
> Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: n/a  
> Word Count: 1632 words


End file.
